Audio/video players are increasingly popular as the number of audio and video media files available on computer networks such as the internet increase.
Generally stated, two types of audio/video media are found on the Internet. Live streams and fixed length media files. In the first case, the length of the file is indefinite since it contains live audio/video feeds. In the second case, the length of the file is typically known and may be included in the header of the file.
Conventionally, different audio/video players are used to play live streams and fixed length media files. Indeed, fixed length media file readers such as, for example, Macromedia's Flash Player™, expects to find the length of the file in the header of the media file.
Furthermore, conventional audio/video players are often slow when used to play fixed length media files. This is mainly due to the fact that some audio/video players download the complete fixed length media file before starting to play the media file. Some audio/video players may have an internal buffer but also proceed to download the complete fixed length media file and at a certain point, when an internal buffer has been filled, starts playing the media file. However, these processes may be quite slow, especially when using a low bandwidth connection.
One drawback of the prior art is that a user must purchase and install a supplemental live streaming media audio/video player on a personal computer, laptop computer, a personal assistant device or any other suitable computing device. It is also a draw back to have to wait for a large fixed length media file, especially when using a low bandwidth connection, before beginning the playback of the media file.
Another drawback is that the interconnections required to transfer conventional live streaming data between server and client are often prohibited by network security systems, making their use impossible.